Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat announced Wednesday evening that he would carry out court instructions to seal Beit Yehonatan – a Jewish-owned and Jewish-populated building in the mostly Arab neighborhood of Shiloach (Silwan) in eastern Jerusalem.
However, Barkat said, he would do so under protest, and would make sure to also tear down about 200 illegal Arab-owned structures in the same neighborhood.
The statements are included in a letter from Barkat to State Prosecutor Moshe Lador, who demanded fo
"The enforcement policy in the city of Jerusalem as regards Beit Yehonatan is discriminatory, selective and lacking in real justification."
rcefully last week that Barkat take action against Beit Yehonatan, a five story building populated by eight Jewish families.
'I am shouting in your ears'
Barkat noted in his letter to Lador that he will be carrying out the orders against Beit Yehonatan unwillingly, and against his own recommendation and the municipal council's decision. The step also contradicts a plan recently suggested by the municipality, which would have made both Beit Yehonatan and most of the Arab construction in the area legal.
The mayor said that the municipality's plan would have made it possible to “reduce by about 90%” the political friction around illegal construction, whereas carrying out hundreds of demolition orders would involve a “high potential for a conflagration.”
He made it clear that the municipality intends to implement the rule of law without discriminating between Arabs and Jews. “I am shouting in your ears,” Barkat wrote the Chief Prosecutor, “that the enforcement policy in the city of Jerusalem as regards Beit Yehonatan is discriminatory, selective and lacking in real justification, and the explanations provided the enforcement system do not stand the test of factual truth.”
Beit Yehonatan was named after Yehonatan Pollard, who was sentenced to life in jail by a court in the United States almost 25 years ago, for passing on classified information to Israel.
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